Still working the heck out of my beat at the Republican National Convention. Another day. Another protest. Another push to see things a little differently. Things were relatively tame. These seem to be the kinder, gentler protesters here in Tampa, who are more interested in cuddle puddles and hugs than bricks and feces bombs. The highlight of the night though had to be HomoCon, an event sponsored by GOProud, a gay conservative group.
Finally. After months of planning and prepping and stressing for the Republican National Convention in Tampa, I’m finally getting around to the fun part — documenting. Day one went off without a hitch. Smaller numbers of protesters than expected, extremely cordial and kind cops and thankfully some relief from the heat thanks to (non) Hurricane Isaac, which also partially postponed the official activities.
Here’s what I saw on the first day of the RNC:
In wake of teen suicides on a New Mexico reservation, Apache youth came to Florida last month to learn of their ancestors’ story of sacrifice. We drove to Orlando to get on a tour bus with them to ride two hours north to St. Augustine to the Castillo de San Marcos (better known as The Fort) to watch these Native American teens and their families experience a place of pain, while hopefully learning about their place due to the strength of those who survived the atrocities there.
It’s described better in Lane Degregory’s words and in a story worth reading:
She believes the suicides stem, in part, from something she calls historical trauma.
“Generations of genocide, colonization, imprisonment, all of that trauma trickles down and leads to other issues,” said Braveheart, who has studied and written about the issue for more than 20 years.
When the government systematically attacks a culture — when it uproots people, murders or jails them and steals their land — the disruption ripples through generations. Examples include Holocaust survivors, Japanese-Americans who were held in internment camps — and American Indians, Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart, an associate professor at the University of New Mexico said.
Clay Geronimo, 24, runs his hand down a coquina wall inside the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, where a crown dancer was carved into the shell to ward off evil spirits and provide protection to the Apaches that were imprisoned there. Clay Geronimo is a direct descendent of the famous Apache Chief Geronimo, and while his great grandfather wasn’t imprisoned at this Florida fort, several of his wives and many members of his tribe were.
Tralin Torres, 12, reads a plaque inside the “Indian Room” at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. Torres, a rising fifth grader, and Mescalero Indian from New Mexico, studied the rooms where his Apache relatives who were brought in by train were imprisoned. He instructed his mom to take plenty of pictures of him at the Fort so he could use them for show-and-tell at school.
After getting off a charter bus from Orlando, Andrew Tsosie, 14, Tralin Torres, 12, and Kolby Kane, 13, (left to right), all of Mescalero, New Mexico walk up to the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine to learn about the historical trauma caused by their Apache ancestors having been imprisoned there.
While an elder gives a blessing in their native language in the room where numerous Apache Indians were imprisoned at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Willymae Smith wipes away the tears brought on by hearing of her relatives pain and suffering.
Much to his surprise, Park Ranger Joey Behm walks into the ranger’s office at the Castillo de San Marcos to find a group of Mescalero Indian women putting on their regalia for a lesson on the historical trauma their people endured there at the fort. “We’re going to have to scalp you now,” one woman joked.
A group of Mescalero Indians from New Mexico traveled to the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine to learn about their ancestors imprisonment there, get a group picture made by friend Dori Tamagni, who does equine therapy on their reservation.
Supervisory Park Ranger Jill Jaworski points out historical photos of Native Americans at the fort in St. Augustine to Mescalero elders Bonna Dell Ortega, center, and Dorene Enjady, right.
As their charter bus drives through the streets of St. Augustine, Fla., the Mescalero youth take out their cell phones to document their journey. For many, it was their first airplane ride and their first trip out of their native New Mexico. More than anything, they wanted to go to the beach while in Florida.
My good friend Luanne Dietz called to tell me that there were boys playing football in a front yard nearby, girls sitting on the steps doing each other’s hair and the dad was sitting on the front porch sanding all these football helmets in the background. Can’t pass up a feature like that… When I rolled up and asked permission the women and girls doing hair wanted no part of being in the newspaper so they (sadly) went inside. But dad and the boys went right on doing there thing and let me hang and do mine until the rain drove us both onto the porch seeking shelter.
Even though it’s a competition that melds sheer brute force and the finesse flick-of-the-wrist technique that demands a winner and loser be declared, at the end of the day the shake hands with respect. Arm wrestling is a small community. Arm wrestlers on this level are like one big family, especially Charity and Cheyenne Messer, a mother-daughter arm-wrestling duo that Leonora LaPeter Anton and I did a fun feature story on.
From John Woodrow Cox’s story:
His memories of that day are disjointed, broken apart by hours of darkness. They replay in his mind like an old movie missing its most important strips of film.
For more than 700 days, Demetrius Jordan has struggled to fill the voids. But he does not deny what he cannot remember.
It was late summer 2010. Jordan was 20 and drunk and speeding. His 2001 Chevrolet Impala approached a red light on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in St. Petersburg. He didn’t stop.
At that moment, an Orlando accountant and his three adult sons were heading back to their vacation rental in Redington Beach after a movie. Jordan slammed into their Ford Fusion at 83 mph.
The impact crushed and killed all four McConnell men. Elroy, 51. Elroy III, 28. Nathan, 24. Kelly, 19.
Jordan survived.
Last month, he pleaded guilty to four counts of DUI manslaughter. A judge will sentence him on Friday, possibly to life in prison.
Read the rest here. It’s worth your time.
Three things I’ve learned since watching the 2012 Olympic Summer games:
1. With a bronze in 1924 for shooting & silver in 1928 for the men’s long jump, Haiti hasn’t won an Olympic medal since. Haiti’s best best for a medal in these Olympic games is Samyr Laine, a 28-year-old lawyer, who is trying to win a medal in the triple jump for his ancestral homeland. One of his fans is his former college roommate at Harvard, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Also, as a side note (unlike their Caribbean bobsled neighbors) Haiti has never competed in the Winter Olympics.
2. Having won his 20th medal in these Summer games, Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. If Phelps were a country, he would be ahead of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Chile, Israel, the old Russian Empire and Tunisia. He’s only just behind India, Taiwan, Portugal, Nigeria and Thailand. In terms of golds, he’s ahead of North Korea.
3. Olympic weightlifter Sarah Robles can lift more than 568 pounds — that’s roughly five IKEA couches, 65 gallons of milk, or one large adult male lion. But that doesn’t mean much when it comes to signing the endorsement deals that could pay the bills. It would be hard enough for the average person to live off the $400 a month she receives from U.S.A. Weightlifting, but it’s especially difficult for someone who consumes 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day… instead she’s living in poverty.
